Almost three weeks before the start of the Tour de France, defending champion Jonas Vingegaard has already shown himself to be in great shape.

The Dane single-handedly clinched victory on stage five at the Criterium du Dauphiné, taking over the yellow jersey from his compatriot Mikkel Bjerg. Vingegaard won after 191.1 kilometers from Cormoranche-sur-Saone to Salins-les-Bains with a lead of 31 seconds over former world champion Julian Alaphilippe from France.

Ninth win of the season for Vingegaard

With 14 kilometers to go, Vingegaard broke away from the rest of the field with an attack on the Cote de Thésy, a second-category mountain, and maintained his lead on the descent. The day before, the 26-year-old had missed out on the leader's jersey when he placed second in the individual time trial. For Vingegaard, who is now 1:23 minutes ahead of Alaphilippe in the overall standings, it was his ninth win of the season. Former Tour fourth Emanuel Buchmann lost 1:02 minutes and is 27th in the overall standings.

On Friday, the Dauphiné tour continues with the sixth stage over 170.2 kilometers from Nantua to Crest-Voland. The tour dress rehearsal ends on Sunday in Grenoble.